CAFE Hell

Fire of Liberty
Well last week the White House at the behest of Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta(Who's the only Democrat in the Cabinet)has decided to put their nose further into the tent of the private sector by imposing even greater CAFE standards on the American automakers. It's all well and good that the folks in the Bush administration are so concerned about lessening our dependence on foreign oil but imposing greater standards on the car makers is not the way to solve the problem. Instead of playing such pressures on the car industry(Ask the folks at Ford and GM who are being laid off. I don't think the management of these respected companies need this new head-ache) we need to start tackling the problem at the supply end which means we should start pushing legislation that frees up the energy sector to start drilling for oil in the dark recesses of ANWR, offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and California, build more refineries throughout the nation(not just in Louisiana, Texas and California), exploring older wells with new technology and getting more out, investing in technology and processes that derive oil from things like tar sands(Canada) and shale(Colorado).

All of these approaches are far greater than letting the heavy handed federal government insert themselves into the board rooms and design rooms of a private company that has seen its better days. You keep on applying such standards and you'll discover that while we might increase the fuel mileage of trucks, SUVs and Cars we also push the American auto industry further off the side of the cliff until they hit rock bottom where the US government will place the burden on tax payers. So we'll have more fuel efficient cars as well as a multi-billion dollar bailout in the future. O joy.

Now while my common man language is a pretty good way of arguing against the federal government imposing these non-market driven CAFE standards(I'm thinking GM and Ford know far better about cars than the bureaucrats in D.C.)it lacks the oomph of Detroit News columnist Thomas Bray. As a free-marketer and resident of car-town USA I'd have to say that Bray has a better read of what's going on than what Mineta and the folks in D.C. hatching such a policy. In fact I'd have to say that Bray pretty much lays waste to the whole CAFE standards talk in his latest column when he notes:

Indeed, CAFE, first enacted in 1975, has been accompanied by a steady rise in consumption of foreign oil, thanks in large part to the refusal of environmental zealots to allow more exploration and drilling here at home. And to the extent CAFɉ actually reduces demand for oil, it works to hold down prices - which in turn makes it cheaper to drive. Americans have responded by greatly increasing the miles they drive, undercutting the broader goal of reducing use of carbon-based fuels.

As the National Academy of Sciences agreed in 2001, moreover, CAFɉ kills. To meet mileage standards, automakers were forced to make lighter cars, which happen to be less safe in a crash. The NAS estimated that up to 2,600 extra deaths occur each year because of CAFÉ -- as many Americans as have been killed in Iraq since the war there started.

Sure, automakers will meet the standards. But if, as many critics claim, the world is running out of oil, the market will force serious adjustments anyway. With gasoline pushing $2.50 or even $3 a gallon, consumers already have cut their demand for SUVs by 15-30 percent, for example - even before President Bush offered up his Jimmy Carter-esque lecture on our "oil addiction."

Detroit has long been a handy whipping boy for those in Washington and elsewhere who like to whip up fears about the carbon economy, a rationale for increased government control over the lives of everyday Americans. But Washington's meddling - anybody remember the oil price controls of the 1970s, or the Justice Department's effort to bust up the supposedly indomitable General Motors in the 1960s? - is an even bigger reason the industry has been unable to respond as nimbly as it might to its newer, younger competition.

I know that a Republican President named George W. Bush won in 2004 but damn if it doesn't look like Al Gore, John Kerry, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are directing our energy policy. Go figure. I'll stick with my gguzzlinging vehicles cause I favor my life and the safety of my family.